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Rare Soviet Retro-Future Space Art
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Nov 27, 2007 03:01 AM
from the rocketships-away dept.
from the rocketships-away dept.
abramsv writes "A collection of the most inspiring and hard-to-find retro-futuristic graphics from rather unlikely sources: Soviet & Eastern Bloc 'popular tech & science' magazines, German, Italian, British fantastic illustrations and promotional literature — all from the Golden Age of Retro-Future (1930s to 1970s)."
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Verb? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Verb? (Score:5, Funny)
All from Slashdot.
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My suggestion (Score:2)
Unlikely sources?! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Unlikely sources?! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Futuristing predictions are depressing. (Score:2, Interesting)
It's depressing to think we'll be long dead before humanity finally understands the universe.
Space travel, immortality, living in far planets, knowing the origin and the end of all, and, most of all, contacting an alien intelligence and culture if there is one.
However, I do feel lucky for living in an era of enlightenment and fast technological evolution. A mere two or three centuries in the past, I'd have seen the same adva
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Re:Futuristing predictions are depressing. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Imaginative... (Score:5, Insightful)
While great sci-fi is by no means limited to a distant past(thank you gaiman, stephenson, etc...), it is seems that space travel just isn't that romanticized in today's cultures. Have we stopped dreaming of an extraordinary not-so-distant future?
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Re:Imaginative... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Agreed 100% (Score:2, Interesting)
What happened to humanity? We used to dream about bright space future, flying cars, scientific progress and stuff like that. And we had hope to achieve all of this if we put enough effort into it. And now I think we lost that hope.
I don't see people dreaming about anything more than getting a million dollars and doing 2 chicks at the same time...
And you can bash soviets all you wish, but they had one thing right- the educat
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We don't have flight, radio, nuclear power, combustion kind of progress... we have flat screens instead of normal screens, a smaller mobile phones, we are going from analog to digital, etc... People don't do brea
Re:Agreed 100% (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd argue against that. In my lifetime (since the late 1970's) I've seen amazing progress. Cars have started using different engines on a wide scale for the first time since the early 20th century, plausible theories of physics have been advanced to unify quantum mechanics and relativity, and parents walking through the subway have to explain to their young children that all phones used to have cords like the ones on the wall.
The world has been connected in a way never before seen via the internet, and embedded computers are making AI pervasive, easing many day to day tasks, from a car that parks itself to a phone that knows what word I want to type based on past usage patterns, or a camera that can recognize faces. Those that aren't embedded are displaying their imagery on screens which are not only made of an effectively heatless light source, but one which we are now growing organically. Every day I read stories selected automatically from hundreds of newspapers, and for better or worse robots have begun fighting for us in wartime. I walk around with thousands of hours of music in my pocket, and what's playing can be altered at the touch of a button, even automatically selected to suit my mood.
The introduction of the FMRI and MRI have allowed us to safely look inside a persons head without opening it up (which if you think about it is truly amazing), and to see with such detail and precision that we can follow distinct tracts of neural connections (diffusion tensor imaging) or watch the patterns of thought activity play across a living human brain (FMRI). The Poincaré Conjecture was proven after stumping mathematicians for a hundred years, and new construction materials are allowing us to build ever grander and more elaborate buildings, of a scale that dwarf the skyscrapers of the previous century. People can don gloves and climb walls like geckos. We have mapped the human genome and brought cloning from conjecture into reality.
If we go back a bit before my birth, we began to take people's failing organs out and replace them with new ones, or with artificial ones we have made ourselves. Now we can alter blood types and revitalize failing systems with stem cells. If you suffer nerve damage and are rendered blind or deaf, we can wire sensory devices directly into your brain to bypass the affected areas. We have eradicated smallpox and invented plastics, not to mention the introduction of home refrigeration. Containerization revolutionized the shipping industry, allowing me to eat whatever food I want at any time of year, without regard for growing seasons. We understand how continents form, and that the earth moves beneath our feet.
This is an amazing time, and breakthroughs are happening every day. Many of us just don't see them, because of the sheer volume we encounter, and the rate of change we have become accustomed to.
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How about "Provide the sum total of human knowledge for free to every human being, in every human language" for an ambitious dream ?
How about a network and a laptop for every child ?
How about reducing by half the proportion of humans su
Re:Imaginative... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now we live in a polluted world of mass-media violence, government oppression; people have lost all the power they believed they once had. Education is not valued; the long term doesn't matter.
When those "retrofuture" pieces were being produced, there was a real sense around the world that tomorrow was going to be better than today.
Who here honestly thinks tomorrow is going to be better than today? Who here honestly thinks their kids are going to live in a world better than we are?
That sort of mass human space exploration was a powerful vision of where the future was leading back then... whereas these days something between Mad Max and Bladerunner is probably more accurate.
Times have changed, thats what happened to mankind's fascination with space.
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Re:Imaginative... (Score:4, Insightful)
Because in space, there are no runaway ex-CIA generals to capture, and no oil.
It's revisionist to suggest that the space race had anything to do with science or education or exploration. Sure, 99% of the people WORKING on the project felt so... but it was a military project in civilian clothing. It took a LOT of pressure by NASA workers to get one token scientist on the moon mission... and in one document, he lightheartedly referred to outsider treatment because he was an egghead and not a combat pilot.
For the price or the Iraq war, we could afford solid missions to the moon and Mars. The damage done to the present and future economy by the neo-cons like Cheney will not be understood until someone else has to pay for it. It is a sad chapter in US history that we elected these neo-cons, who had vested interests in bankrupting the USA and many of which carry "dual passports".
There will be a space race again all right... led by China. The USA will react, but will be so poor that they have to outsource the shipbuilding.
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Incompetence happened (Score:2)
"It's been half a century since we went to the Moon, and we're having trouble just putting a little space station in Low Earth Orbit" is depressing.
Or as someone else summed it up: "The Cold War is over." Nobody who could afford to build orbital spaceships ever really wanted to, not when making really big ICBMs was all it took to embarrass the Soviets, and certainly not after our first spaceship
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at the current pace, there won't be any money to be made there for a long long time...
God damnit (Score:2)
View of Earth (Score:2, Interesting)
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"Lunar Unicycle" by Frank Tinsley, 1959 - pacific ocean
(TM cover, Russia 1953) - Africa Europe
"Nuclear Rocketship" by Frank Tinsley, 1959 - Africa Europe
(image credit: retro-futurismus) - Americas
Wrong continent? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wrong continent? (Score:5, Funny)
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Nostalgia (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, what I wanted to underline that so called "Socialism in space" was more than propaganda, it had different mind set, and sometimes it was for me as small boy easier to connect to those stories with all scientific stuff and challenges of scientists against their egos and needs. Also they definitely tried to imagine how life of people would be in future, how social and moral elements change - for good, of course. While Western sci-fi (as it holds roots more in Scepticism) bashes human nature and don't find escape from it, however there are lot of funny and hopeful authors. I still wait for sci-fi who would embrace both of these - western and "socialist" styles. That would definitely exciting to read.
In resume, I really miss sci-fi which could inspire and lift up, not just show future from very pessimistic point of view. Yes, we as humanity has huge issues, starting with problem to lacking people who value humanity over their egos, who work together with others to achieve something. It is not said that everyone should work and live together as brothers, but at least we should not try to kill each other because of small petty differences.
Just my two euro cents,
Peter.
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ekhm, ekhm.
Tintin inspiration? (Score:3, Interesting)
Customer alert (Score:2, Funny)
I'm reminded of 1970s Maplin catalogue covers. (Score:2)
LOL'd at this one (Score:2)
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I probably wouldn't have noticed but it didn't take much imagination at all.
This brought tears to my eyes (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what partially inspired me to go into tech in the first place. I wanted to make those images a reality.
An interesting piece of trivia - pictures credited with TM were published by the official magazine of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. This magazine was targeted at teens. Among other things, we had ZX80 source listings, MK61 programmable calculator listings, and so forth. Those were simple games that I would have to painstakingly type in on my MK61 calculator in RPN notation. Yet they taught me the principles of directly addressing a microprocessor. I had a subscription to many of these magazines since I was 5. Yet now in US we are experiencing a rapid decline in science education. It sounds unthinkable that Whitehouse would sponsor something like this, even though the expense would be trivial and would promote agencies like NASA. Something needs to happen before we wind up a 3rd world country due to lack of science, lack of big dreams, and apathy. That's precisely what USSR did. Even though the scientists were paid miserly wages, the children were inspired to get involved in building the future. I don't ever see big dreams promoted in the US. Everything is compartmentalized, processed, antisocial, and really not inspiring.
I will own several of the technological marvels such as flying cars within a few years. I will do it because I still have dreams and still remember what inspired me. But will others? Or will they be toiling away in overwhelming debt unable to see through the haze of daily stress? The only thing I can think of that is good for science and inspiration lately is Mythbusters. That's my opinion, but it probably made more than a few kids curious about chemistry at the very least.
This is so sad that it brought tears to my eyes.
Anyone else notice. . . (Score:2)
1. Almost without exception, the ships depicted in space, on the moon, etc, are shown with pointy or round noses. If you're in space, you don't have to worry about aerodynamics and certainly not on places which have no atmosphere (the moon).
2. The first picture below To Saturn and beyond: shows people on a moon of Saturn wearing full spacesuits EXCEPT for the camera man.
Notice (Score:4, Interesting)
There's only one image that would be typical of a US sci fi magazine cover, with the handsome space pioneer man in the foreground and his female counterpart in the background. Even so, there is little suggestion that the pioneer man plays a key role as an individual in whatever action is being depicted.
This might be an artifact of selection, but it's tempting to speculate that this reflects a collectivist view of the future. Still, I have a certain kitschy fondness for Socialist Realism school of art, and many such works do use an heroic individual as a focal point -- albeit either an anonymous one or a historical hero like Lenin. Arguably in either case, Socialist Realism uses the individual functioning as a representative of the working class.
These images are quite austere and free of any hint of individuality as a focal point in the imagined future.
Why is this a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have been living in the States for many years and one thing still puzzles me: Americans know so little about their former enemy. Why is this space art is such a surprise? Do you really believe that all Soviets did was related to drinking vodka and breaking backs in Gulag? Soviet Union had art, music and science. Are you aware of the fact that most Soviet high schools taught organic chemistry in the 10th and 11th grades? Please spare me "but what about the food lines" statements. The system screwed the people beyond belief and there was little that even smart people could do about the political aspect of the country.
Years ago I recall a question from one of American high school students, "Do bears run on streets in Russia?" I thought that the person was kidding. No, this was a serious question. Apparently the student thought that Soviet/Russian cities (the terms that he used as synonyms) were full of bears and vodka drinking hunters with bad manners. The insulting part was that this question came from somebody who knew nothing about chemistry, physics or calculus in his junior year of high school. We did not have bears, but we had Z80s, programmable calculators, home grown vector processors (Elbrus) and enough nukes to destroy the world. You know, the usual items found in half-way houses :)
Those who are interested in the subject of art and space may want to read up on Alexey Leonov. He summarized his experiences in space in a book and many drawings. Check out the wiki [wikipedia.org]. I am not sure if any copies of Technical Molodezhi (Technology of the Youth) were translated into English, but it was a really neat magazine. I started reading it as soon as I could read and understand some of the basic concepts. Think of Popular Science + Popular Mechanics + various news articles related to physical sciences combined in one package.
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Do not be hard on yourself. Soviet propaganda managed to taint the image of Americans quite well :) However, I did have higher expectations for the United
States because this was the leader of the free world.
You did not have to go far enough to realize that Soviet Union had issues. Food shortages, poor housing management and never ending agricultural dilemmas were hidden behind clever marketing of the Communist Party. Despite all of that, the Soviets still managed to put a man in space and run a successf
Re:obvious (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Russian? (Score:4, Funny)
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Because it is the other side of the Earth ?
More seriously, the most likely cause is that Eurasia is just a big blob of landmass, not much variety. The two Americas do look much better - and make it obvious it is a planet.
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Only to someone from the Americas. Eurasia has a coast too, and a very distinctive one at that. Just look at the west coast. People recognise what they are used to.
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Does anyone remember Star Trek? if anyone took time to pay attention; the future turns into a quasi communist paradise where people have evolved to the point that they work for the good of each other rather than per sue their own individual animalistic desires.
The utopia view of society is hardly new, the Soviet Union, for all its flaws, had many visionaries who wanted to turn society into a place where people worked for the good of each
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Re:Russian? (Score:4, Funny)
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All I needed to do to collect it was get a good relationhip with my local antiquarian bookshop (chocies on the holidays, stuff like that). They have a list of the things I like and bid for interesting books at auction because they know I'll buy it.
The contents usually pretty good too. Back in that era you find a lot of scientists elaborating on their idea's of space travel and aliens using a medium that held no risk of peer ridicule. It's surprisingly in